Goals. I always thought that word was a bit wanky (unless it came to Aston Villa scoring a few). I couldn’t see what the difference between New Year’s resolutions and goals for the new year were – both seemed to be things that you set up only to inevitably fail at in a couple of weeks, leaving you feeling a bit shitty and like a failure.

The more I think about it though, the more I think I can see a difference between the two. Resolutions are like promises – they’re set with no flexibility and you either keep them or you don’t. Goals are less concrete – the goalposts are always moveable. If you’re constantly hitting them all, you can move those posts back and stretch yourself. If you’re struggling a little bit, you can bring them forward.

2017 wasn’t a terrible year for us but it certainly can be improved on. I don’t want to float about as much in 2018, which is what I felt like we did for much of last year. That was ok though – we were still finding out about the area we live in, making new friends, Graham starting a new job. This year, I want it to be more settled and organised, which is why I thought it was pretty important to think about setting some goals.

I’m not putting myself under lots of pressure to hit them all – as I said above, I’ll bring the goal posts forward if I need to. As long as I’m kicking the ball in the right direction, I’ll be happy. So – here are a few goals for 2018.

Continue to lose weight

Ah. That one. How many people start off a new year with this as a resolution or goal? Last year, I set myself a target of losing ‘some’ weight – I didn’t specify how much because I didn’t want to set myself up to fail. Even a few pounds would be better than nothing. I have no idea how much weight I lost because I don’t weigh myself anymore, but I’ve dropped at least two dress sizes, and I reckon that’s a good couple of stones. I didn’t try very hard, I just ate less and moved more, which is what I will continue to do this year, but ramp it up a little bit. In an ideal world, I’d love to be a size 14 by Christmas (size 12 is my ultimate goal – I start looking a bit skinny any smaller than that!) so that’s what I’m working towards. At the moment, I’m a size 20.

Be calmer

This is probably the hardest one for me because my very personality and nature is anything but calm. I’m highly strung, anxious and short tempered. I can’t change who I am, but I’m going to look at strategies to calm me down when I start getting worked up or feel like I’m about to boil over. If anyone has any tips other than the usual ‘count to ten’, please let me know!

Get outside every day

This one isn’t as hard as it would have been a couple of years ago because of where we live. Sometimes though, it’s the whole getting ready and finding the motivation to go out that stops me because when I’m out, I love being outside. I’m also not a massive fan of the rain (ok – I bloody hate the rain!) and living in Wales, we get an awful lot of the wet stuff. However, I have wellies, I have a waterproof coat and I’m determined not to let the crap weather stop me being outside. This will also probably help me with losing weight and being calmer – the sea is instantly calming!

Learn something new

I’ve always really loved history and would read and watch and learn new things all the time, but in the past couple of years, I’ve let that slide. I really want to get back into learning more about the past, and some freelance work that I’ve been doing over the past few months has got me into medieval history – something which I know little about but am now finding incredibly fascinating. I want to learn more about it, as well as continue to learn about the world wars, Elizabethan times and the Victorian period.

I’m also now the proud owner of a DSLR camera and a studio lighting/backdrop kit. Whilst over the years I’ve learned to take a semi-decent photo and know the very basics of photography, it’s still all very new to me. I want to learn how to use my camera properly and how lighting works. I’ll be teaching myself using guides from Pinterest and YouTube tutorials, as well as just experimenting and playing about.

Read more

Ever since I was old enough to understand what a book was, I’ve loved reading. In life before kids, I could literally read a book in a few hours (yes, I’m a fast reader!) and I would be at the library every two or three weeks getting new ones. In the past few years, I’ve found myself reading less and less to the point where last year, I think I only read three or four books from start to finish. That’s pretty pathetic. I’m really conscious of setting a good example for the kids by letting them see me enjoying a book. Whilst all three of them are little bookworms now, I’m aware that as they get older, it may change. How can I lecture them on the importance of reading for pleasure if I don’t do it myself? I’ve got rid of a lot of my physical books because of the space they take up but I have signed up for Kindle Unlimited on my Amazon Fire Tablet so I can download plenty of books. This goal also links in with the one about learning more about history!

Grow My Blog

I’ve got a whole set of mini goals and targets that are specific to my blog, which I may or may not blog about (probably will,!) but the ultimate goal is to continue to grow it. I want to increase my social media following, my domain authority and my monthly views as well as to continue to earn a decent income from it. I also want to be able to write more organic content (not sponsored stuff or reviews, although there will be plenty of those still I hope – they pay the bills!). You may also see me share some more personal stuff or more heartfelt stuff – for the past four years, I’ve kept it relatively fluffy and lighthearted, worrying a little about what people would think but actually, I don’t care anymore. It’s my blog, and it’s part of me and I want to share more of who I am as a person.

So there they are. That’s what I’m hoping I will have achieved by the end of 2018. Have you got any goals for the new year?